Firelight Media Documentary Lab has selected its 10 latest fellows for mentoring, funding, professional development and networking.
“The new fellows are adding to the number of diverse voices that we aim to support in the documentary space,” said Loira Limbal, lab director and v.p. at filmmaker Stanley Nelson’s Firelight Media in New York City.
The fellows and their projects:
- Adele Pham, #NailedIt: Vietnamese & the Nail Industry, detailing the culture’s influence on the $8 billion nail economy;
- Andrés Caballero and Sofian Khan, The Interpreter, profiling Afghan and Iraqi interpreters who served with U.S. forces;
- Assia Boundaoui, The Feeling of Being Watched, examining surveillance in one American neighborhood;
- Jacqueline Olive, Always in Season, chronicling the lingering impact of the practice of lynching;
- Jennifer Brea, Canary in a Coal Mine, in which the filmmaker documents her struggle with chronic fatigue syndrome;
A scene from A Guangzhou Love Story, a documentary about Chinese-African marriages. (Photo: Kathy Huang)
- Kathy Huang, A Guangzhou Love Story, exploring the rise in marriages between Chinese women and African men;
- PJ Raval, Justice for Jennifer, investigating the murder of a transgender Filipina;
- Ray Santisteban, Time of the Phoenix: The First Rainbow Coalition, charting the history of a groundbreaking multiethnic coalition in 1960s Chicago;
- Vaishali Sinha, Ask the Sexpert, profiling a popular sex columnist for a daily newspaper in India, where the subject is taboo; and
- Yu Gu, A Woman’s Work, following three former NFL cheerleaders and their class-action lawsuits against their own teams.
“All of the stories they are working on illustrate what Firelight is about,” Limbal said in the announcement, “highlighting people who are often invisible, challenging mainstream narratives and ultimately, changing the story about the lives of the diverse communities that we live in.”
The Small Station Association of the Public Television Affinity Group Coalition elected new board leadership and members last month.
Hoffman
Phil Hoffman, director of KMOS in Warrensburg, Mo., is chair through 2018, succeeding Mark Stanislawski, president, Southern Oregon Public Television. They will represent the association to the AGC; alternative representative is Monica Reese, g.m., WLJT, Martin, Tenn.
Also elected to two-year board terms were Royal Aills, g.m., KRSU, Claremore, Okla.; Lynn Brown, president, WPBS, Watertown, N.Y.; Glen Cerny, g.m., KRWG, Las Cruces, N.M.; and Emily Loya, g.m., KCOS, El Paso, Texas.
Content
WGBH News in Boston has hired Robert Dumas as executive producer for the nightly public affairs programs Greater Boston and Beat the Press. Dumas has more than 30 years’ experience covering local news, including as executive producer of the investigative unit and special projects at the local CBS affiliate, WBZ. He also led the newsroom when it won a 2013 Peabody Award for its coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings.
Lubinsky
TJ Lubinsky, public television’s My Music pledge series producer, is now also the Friday-night disc jockey at Oldies 1079 WOLD-LP in Edison, N.J. Lubinsky will be playing tunes from the 1950s through the ’80s on the air and online at WOLDRadio.com.
The Current, Minnesota Public Radio’s Triple A music station, has hired two local music reporters. Michael Novitzki will host The Duluth Local Show starting May 1. Previously he was assistant music director and host at KUMD at University of Minnesota Duluth. And Cecelia Johnson will work as a St. Paul–based blogger, covering the Twin Cities music scene. She has contributed to the Local Current Blog since 2014.
Rico
Classical radio host Lauren Rico has written a novel, Reverie, which is also the name of her show on KMFA in Austin, Texas. Rico told Current that the “cross-genre book” is “part dark romance, part psychological thriller.” She added that her hope “is to expose more people to classical music by using it as the backdrop of a hot and steamy, twisty page-turner.” It’s available on Amazon.
KQED-FM in San Francisco has promoted Sasha Khokha to host its statewide magazine program, The California Report. Khokha joined the station in 2004 and previously worked as Central Valley Bureau Chief for the program. According to KQED, Khokha “began her radio career in waterproof overalls filing stories about the salmon fishery at Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska.”
Ervine
Management
Beverley Ervine, program director at WOSU Public Media in Columbus, Ohio, will retire June 30 after three decades with the station. Ervine began work there in 1986 as a music librarian. During her tenure, “she’s done nearly every job one could do at a radio station except announce and fix equipment,” according to the station. Ervine also served for several years as a board member and president of the Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio.
Academia
Coleman
CPB Ombudsman Milton Coleman is joining the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University as the Edith Kinney Gaylord Visiting Professor in Journalism Ethics. Coleman, who retired as senior editor at the Washington Post in 2012, will teach journalism ethics and diversity this fall.
Governance
The board of PBS39 in Bethlehem, Pa., has elected new leadership. David Willard, retired from Olympus Corp. of the Americas, is chair; John E. Longenderfer, retired president of Lutron Electronics, vice chair; Steven Thompson, a manager at Delane Consulting and Staffing, treasurer; and Gary Olson, president of ESSA Bank & Trust, secretary.
The board of Public Broadcasting Atlanta has appointed Ann Cramer as chair. Cramer is senior consultant with Coxe Curry & Associates after retiring from IBM, where she directed corporate citizenship and corporate affairs for the Americas. She succeeds Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, who led the board for 20 years and was one of the founders of WABE 90.1 and PBA30. At the April 5 meeting, Sullivan was also unanimously elected as the first honorary life member of the Board of Directors in recognition of his contributions.
Sponsorship
McColly
The new corporate sponsorship manager at Idaho Public Television is Teri Tate McColly, responsible for creating and cultivating partnerships with businesses, organizations and foundations. Most recently she managed donor relations at the nonprofit Idaho Food Bank. Her broadcasting experience includes positions at several Journal Broadcast Group stations in Idaho, where she worked in advertising, production and on-air hosting.
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